PROPOSED RESOLUTION ON PACIFICA
TO THE PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS
OF THE U.S. CONGRESS

WHEREAS, in a media environment that is concentrated and
homogenized, Pacifica Radio has become the single most important
progressive national radio network and affiliate system in the United
States over the past half a century ;

WHEREAS, the founders intended for Pacifica to *contribute to a
lasting understanding between nations and between individuals of all
nations, races, creeds and colors*;

WHEREAS, in fulfilling that mission, Pacifica*s community radio
stations produced programming that defied the conventions of the cold
war and the blacklist, and gave a voice to the movements against
racism, war and for the rights of workers, women, gay men and
lesbians, immigrants, and the disabled;

WHEREAS, Pacifica Radio has developed as a community-based
organization with democratic internal structures, unlike the
hierarchical nature of mainstream broadcasting, both commercial and
noncommercial;

WHEREAS, the current leadership of the Pacifica National Board has
undermined Pacifica*s historic mission and institutional integrity as
a progressive organization through a series of capricious and
destructive measures;

WHEREAS, among those measures has been the undermining of the
community and representative nature of Pacifica by disenfranchising
and even banning Local Advisory Boards from meeting at the station and
making the Pacifica National Board a self-selecting and
self-perpetuating body, whose majority no longer reflects Pacifica*s
historic constituencies and priorities;

WHEREAS, the measures of the Pacifica National Board majority have
included the firing of the general manager and lockout of the staff at
KPFA in Berkeley, California, in 1999, and the wholesale firing and
banning of staff since the Christmas, 2000 coup at WBAI in New York
City, in violation of the organization*s own procedures and union
contracts,

WHEREAS, Pacifica has repeatedly censored or attempted to censor its
national programs, punishing and threatening personnel from Democracy
Now and the Pacifica National News, where changes in the personnel and
content of Pacifica National News have eviscerated its tradition of
seeking news sources and perspectives absent from mainstream media and
has led to a year-long strike by Pacifica news stringers worldwide;

WHEREAS, draft by-laws submitted at the Pacifica National Board
Meeting in March 2001 would further erode the historic mission and
democratic structures of Pacifica, permitting the alteration of the
articles of incorporation, the possibility of financial compensation
to members of the Board as the result of the sale of any of the
network*s properties, and the concentration of greater authority in
the hands of fewer and fewer people;

WHEREAS, the chairperson of the Pacifica National Board and its
Treasurer have openly espoused the sale of KPFA and/or WBAI at Board
meetings and in a mis-routed
e-mail from the Treasurer;

WHEREAS, the Pacifica National Board majority has replaced the goal
of public service with audience ratings, purged much of the
progressive political and cultural content from Pacifica*s airwaves,
and turned its Washington, DC and Houston, Texas outlets primarily
into music stations;

WHEREAS, the New York Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, has protested
that, *precious dollars raised from listeners are being used by the
Pacifica Foundation to engage the services of union-busting
consultants and law firms such as Epstein, Becker and Green;

WHEREAS, the management of WBAI, in New York, interrupted Congressman
Major Owens and cut him off the air in mid-sentence during an
interview regarding the crisis at Pacifica;

AND WHEREAS, in response to these measures there has been a national
outcry among progressives, and a movement has developed embracing
prominent authors like Alice Walker and Noam Chomsky, as well as a
host of labor and civil rights organizations, community leaders, and
protest movement of tens of thousands of listeners throughout the
nation has evolved;

BE IT RESOLVED, THEREFORE, WE THE PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS OF THE U.S.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, strongly condemn the actions of the majority
of the Pacifica National Board in systematically subverting this
unique and precious national resource for progressives in the United
States;

AND, MOREOVER, WE RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING:

THAT no sale of any of the five existing Pacifica stations be
permitted by the Pacifica National Board, and that a written
prohibition against any such sale be made;

THAT a democratic process within the Pacifica National Board and the
Local Advisory Boards allow Pacifica Radio to return to its original
mission and commitment to community involvement and participatory
structures in the life of its stations;

THAT the law suits challenging the undemocratic Pacifica National
Board majority*advanced by listeners, the Local Advisory Boards and
dissident members of the Pacifica National Board * be supported in
their efforts to unseat those directors responsible for undermining
Pacifica*s historic mission and practices;

THAT all those fired as part of efforts to reshape the stations and
the network be reinstated, that all bans be lifted, including any bar
against Local Advisory Boards meeting at stations if they include the
general listener public, and that all *gag rules* prohibiting on-air
discussion of station or network policies be ended.

THAT the rights of Pacifica workers be respected, in particular that
the collective bargaining unit of UE Local 404 at WBAI, as originally
constituted, continue and that unpaid staff continue to receive
contract benefits and that all outstanding grievances throughout the
network be expeditiously addressed;

AND, FINALLY, given the importance of Pacifica Radio to the
progressive community, that more extensive hearings - including
hearings in each of the five cities where Pacifica stations are
located - be scheduled by the Progressive Caucus to address the
Pacifica crisis culminating in a national forum to be sponsored by the
Progressive Caucus and held in Washington D.C. in the next legislative
term on Pacifica*s Crisis: Underlying Causes and Prescriptions for
Renewals.